David Bowie’s tailor: a Hong Kong icon fit for a prince, presidents and the Thin White Duke
Meet the Tsim Sha Tsui tailor who stocked David Bowie’s wardrobe for 32 years
When David Bowie walked into the Tsim Sha Tsui shop of Sam’s Tailors, current owner Manu Melwani had no idea who this thin young man with a shock of blonde hair was, but his other customers did.
“We thought he was something,” Melwani said.
“Later on he was putting some suits on order, and people were looking.” he said, “I said ‘who’s this person?’ They say ‘he’s David Bowie, he’s a well known singer’.
The singer, at the early peak of his career and about to play his most lucrative performance by 1983 at the Hong Kong coliseum, chose silk suits in purple, pink, white and black for his performance.
“Young, nice tapered suits with short jacket, and slim trousers,” Melwani, who as a 27-year-old tailor working with his father was measuring up the megastar, said. “He wore it, because we had to make it in 24 hours for it to be on the stage.”